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Line 9 valve facility on Mandaumin Road occupied Monday

Police officers approach an Enbridge pipeline remote valve site after three protesters were taken into police custody on Monday December 21, 2015 in Sarnia, Ont. The protesters had chained themselves to the valve site. Paul Morden/Sarnia Observer/Postmedia Network

All three were freed, arrested and taken to police headquarters, Jones said.

Fire and ambulance crews had been called in as a precaution.

No one was injured, and “all were arrested without incident,” Jones said.

“That was our goal, to end it quickly and get everybody off the property safely, so Enbridge can go about their business,” said Sarnia Police Insp. Doug Warn.

“We don't want anybody getting hurt.”

The activists issued a press release Monday morning saying they used a manual hand wheel at the valve site at 7:30 a.m. to shut off the flow of oil through Enbridge's Line 9 as “an act of protest.”

The press release identified the three activists as Vanessa Gray, Stone Stewart and Sarah Scanlon.

Later in the day, police said in a press release that three women arrested at the site had been charged, and were being held for a bail hearing.

A 23-year-old Sarnia resident and a 29-year-old Guelph resident were both charged with mischief over $5,000 and mischief endangering life.

A 28-year-old Guelph resident faces the same two charges, as well as a charge of resisting arrest.

“It's clear that tar sands projects represent an ongoing cultural and environmental genocide,” Gray said in the press release.

“I defend the land and water because it is sacred.”

Enbridge spokesperson Ken Hall said later in the morning that the company had regained control of the valve site.

“We've done a safety sweep of the valve to ensure that there was no damage done to it, which we've confirmed,” he said.

The pipeline was expected to be back in operation during the morning, Hall said.

Enbridge received a telephone call from the protesters Monday morning saying they were going to close the valve, he said.

“As soon as they did that, we shut the pipe down,” Hall said.

“It was actually shut down before they were finished turning the wheel.”

Enbridge's Line 9 pipeline was built in the 1970s and runs from Sarnia, where the company operates a terminal connected to pipelines originating in Western Canada, to Montreal.

Line 9 sent oil east to Montreal when it was first built, but the flow was reversed in 1998 so oil from overseas would be moved west.

In 2012, the National Energy Board approved Enbridge's application to return the direction of the flow to its original eastward direction on a section from Sarnia to North Westover, near Hamilton. In 2014, the board approved doing the same for the section from North Westover to Montreal so the line could supply refineries there with western oil.

The press release from the protesters noted the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation is challenging the pipeline in the courts.

After the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the Chippewas of the Thames' case claiming the Crown violated its constitutional obligation by not consulting with the community before National Energy Board approved the company's application, the First Nation has decided to seek to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“The land defenders went in and shut off the valve,” said Lindsay Gray, a spokesperson for the protesters.

She said the group went to the site on Mandaumin Road at approximately 7:30 a.m., and placed a call to the pipeline company to tell them what they were doing.

Gray said the National Energy Board “wasn't listening” to the arguments made by First Nations about their right to be consulted.

“So, we're defending our territory,” she said.

“There was no consultation. This is against our rights.”

Along with the issue of consultation, Gray said the activists are worried about the potential of a spill from Line 9, like one that happened in 2010 when an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan failed and an estimated 843,000 gallons of oil leaked into a creek that flowed into the Kalamazoo River.

“We're just asking for this to be repeated, if this goes on,” she said.

Gray said that after police and Enbridge official arrived at the valve, it took authorities two hours to remove one of the locks.

She added it was easy for the protesters to enter the site and shut off the valve.

“This pipeline is even more a danger to us because it's not even secured,” she said.

“They have no security, whatsoever.”

Hall said remote valve facilities are a regular feature on pipelines.

“If people have ill intent, and they're willing to break the law, it's quite difficult to stop any individual from doing that,” he said.

But, he added, Enbridge is looking at increasing security around remote valve locations.

Monday's action by the protesters was “a dangerous thing to do,” he said.

“This is not safe, and it potentially could have consequences that would be very unfortunate for people and the environment.”

Hall said the reversal of the flow in Line 9 was approved by the federal regulator following “four-plus years of review.”

During that time, Enbridge answered more than 2,000 questions about the reversal proposal from the energy board and stakeholders.

“We recognize the concerns of the First Nations, and we've taken steps to consult with them,” Hall said.

“Enbridge didn't fail to consult. We've tried our very best to do that.”

Pipelines are “the safest way to move the energy that people need,” Hall added.

“Our goal is to do this safely.”

Because Monday's shutdown didn't last long, it wasn't expected to have “any noticeable impact to our shippers,” Hall said.